


Into Shadows, Part 4

by skyblue_reverie



Series: Into Shadows [4]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-12 03:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20557226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyblue_reverie/pseuds/skyblue_reverie
Summary: My take on Into Darkness, less dark and with 100% more Pike and McCoy.This part: capturing John Harrison and rescuing Carol Marcus from the surface of Qo'noS.Jim wobbled his hand in the air and made a “maybe” face.  “Scotty says fifty-fifty chance they blow us to kingdom come if we use ‘em.”





	Into Shadows, Part 4

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and corrections all gratefully received.

They’d been at warp for about an hour. Leonard might not’ve liked space much, but even he could see the beauty in the warp stream. Then his attention was caught by Jim, who’d left the bridge about ten minutes earlier, striding back in, making a beeline for Chris. Jim leaned over Chris’s shoulder and said something too quietly for McCoy to hear. Chris responded and it sounded like, “But are they safe to use?”

Jim wobbled his hand in the air and made a “maybe” face. “Scotty says fifty-fifty chance they blow us to kingdom come if we use ‘em.” 

“Damn it,” Chris said. “Well, I wasn’t planning to use them anyway, unless it became necessary.” Leonard realized they must be talking about the super-secret high-tech torpedoes. What the hell did Chris mean, “unless it became necessary”? McCoy didn’t like the sound of that. He was about to say so when suddenly a massive jolt shook the Enterprise and McCoy stumbled. On the viewscreen, the gleaming streaks of the warp field gave way to the more typical view of the vastness of space.

“Mr. Sulu, report,” Chris rapped out.

“Engineering manually dropped us out of warp, sir,” Sulu replied.

Chris pushed a button on the captain’s chair. “Mr. Scott, did you break my ship?”

Scotty’s voice came through the speaker, sounding annoyed as he always did when things didn’t go perfectly in his department, but not panicked. “Captain, the warp core overheated and I had to activate the emergency stop. It must be a coolant leak. We’ll need time to find it.”

“Get on it,” said Pike, before ending the connection. “Time to our destination?”

“Twenty minutes, sir,” said Sulu.

“That’s twenty minutes in enemy space we weren’t counting on,” said Jim, calm as always in a crisis.

“All right, we’d better hop to it,” said Chris. “Jim, you’re coming with me to Qo’noS.” It wasn’t a surprise to Leonard, but it still turned his guts to ice water, that the two people who meant the most to him in the universe were both going to be in danger. And with the Enterprise not in any condition to go back into warp, the danger had just multiplied exponentially.

Before he could say anything about it, though, Chris had turned to Uhura, and was asking, “Lieutenant, how’s your Klingon?”

Uhura responded with calm confidence. “It’s rusty, but it’s good.”

“Good, you’re coming too,” Pike said.

McCoy leaned over and spoke to Jim and Chris quietly but forcefully, while he still had a chance. “You two aren’t actually going down there _right now_, are you? You don’t rob a bank when the getaway car has a flat tire.”

“I’m sure engineering will have us all patched up by the time we get back.” Chris spoke reassuringly. Leonard was not reassured. But had no time to react before Chris was speaking again, and not to him.

“Pike to transporter room. Can you get a lock on Lieutenant Marcus from here?”

“I’m… not sure. We can try,” was the doubtful response. McCoy couldn’t even remember who was currently in charge of the transporters, but he sure as hell wouldn’t want to try beaming somewhere on that dubious assurance.

“That’s not good enough,” said Chris. Then he looked consideringly at Chekov. “Ensign Chekov. You worked miracles with the transporter at Vulcan. Given that Lieutenant Marcus has a device on her that boosts her signature to transporters, can you get a lock on her and beam her out from here?”

“I believe so, sir,” said Chekov. “But I will need to go to the transporter room to be sure.”

Pike nodded. “Do it.” The he turned to Sulu. “Mr. Sulu, you have the conn. Once we’re en route, and the second that Carol Marcus is back aboard the Enterprise, I want you to transmit a targeted comm burst to Harrison’s location. You tell him that you have 72 long-range torpedoes aimed at him, and if he doesn’t cooperate, you won’t hesitate to use them.” Sulu looked unsure, and Chris added, “Is that a problem?”

“No sir, I’ve just never sat in the chair before.”

Pike smiled briefly. “Don’t worry, you’ll do fine.”

Once again, McCoy tried to talk some sense into Jim and Chris. He said, _sotto voce_, “Chris, wait. You just sat that man down at a high-stakes poker game with no cards and told him to bluff. Now, Sulu’s a good man, but he’s no captain.”

Chris just said, “For the next two hours, he is.” 

“And enough with the metaphors, Bones. That’s an order,” Jim put in, his teasing humor relaxing McCoy a bit, as he must’ve known it would.

Chris spoke to Sulu again. “Mr. Sulu, make that K’Normian ship ready to fly.” Then he turned to McCoy, and spoke firmly enough for Len to get the message loud and clear that Chris was in formal captain mode, and he wouldn’t put up with any further questioning. “Doctor McCoy, I need you in the transporter room. I don’t know what shape Lieutenant Marcus will be in when we get her back.”

McCoy nodded. “Yes, Captain,” he said, turning to leave. It was weird, being formal with Chris, but he knew that Chris, unlike Jim, would want to observe correct Starfleet protocol unless they were alone. Sometimes even when they _were_ alone, but that was just for fun, and… Leonard pulled himself up short. Now really was not the time to start thinking about his and Chris’s sex life. He got his brain back on track and hurried after Chekov.

***

Carol Marcus was safely back on board. She was shaken up, bruised and a little worse for wear, but had no major injuries. McCoy had insisted on keeping her in medbay for observation, partly because he always felt better when his patients were close by, and partly because he had no idea where else to put her. She didn’t have quarters on the Enterprise, and after the trauma she’d just been through, she didn’t need to be shoved into sharing someone else’s quarters, bunking with a stranger on an unfamiliar ship.

She’d agreed readily enough and was currently sleeping, having been given a mild sedative. Then McCoy got a comm from the bridge that the away team was back, about to debark from the K’Normian ship they’d used for the mission. Sulu had assured him that everyone was fine and that Khan had surrendered, but Leonard had to see for himself. So he left a nurse in charge of medbay and headed down to the shuttle bay.

Of course, everything wasn’t fine. It didn’t look too bad, but there had been a fight with the Klingons and Jim, Chris, and Uhura had gotten banged up. Apparently there had been a random Klingon patrol flying by just when they arrived. Thank god Chris hadn’t used the torpedoes, because shooting down a Klingon ship would have been ample provocation to start a war.

Harrison was being led away under heavy guard while Leonard checked the members of the away team with his tricorder. They all had cuts and bruises, but nothing that couldn’t wait a while, and obviously time was of the essence right now. As soon as he pronounced them fit, Chris and Uhura were returning to the bridge to report to Starfleet, leaving Jim to explain the situation to Leonard. 

“It was weird, Bones. He saved us from the Klingons and then, as soon as they were all down, he just threw his weapons aside and surrendered to us.”

“Why the hell did he surrender?”

“I don’t know. And I also don’t know how he took out a squad of Klingons single-handedly. But we’re going to find out.”

“Sounds like we have a superman on board,” McCoy commented.

“You tell me. Get a blood sample kit and meet me at security lockup. There’s something strange going on here.”

A few minutes later, Leonard was standing in front of the cell’s forcefield, opening a hole for Harrison’s arm, which he provided docilely enough. While McCoy took a blood sample, Harrison spoke to Jim.

“Why aren’t we moving, Commander?” 

Jim looked at him, but said nothing, and after a moment Harrison continued. “An unexpected malfunction, perhaps, in your warp core, conveniently stranding you on the edge of Klingon space?”

McCoy stared, blood sample momentarily forgotten. “How the hell do you know that?”

“Bones,” Jim said, a hint of warning in his voice. Damn it, Leonard had said too much. He was no good at this subterfuge shit.

Harrison just continued smoothly, still looking at Jim. “I think you’d find my insight valuable, Commander.”

Leonard finished with the sample and resealed the cell’s forcefield after Harrison had withdrawn his arm.

Jim ignored Harrison and turned to McCoy. “We good?”

“Yeah,” Leonard said.

“Let me know what you find.”

They turned their backs to the cell and began walking away, then Harrison spoke up again. “Ignore me and you will get everyone on this ship killed.”

Bones spoke quietly to Jim. “He’s just trying to get into your head, Jim. Ignore him.”

Jim clenched his fists at his side and said, “Give me a minute.”

Then Jim rounded on Harrison, furious, striding back to the cell, Leonard following a step behind. “Let me explain what’s happening here. You are a criminal. You murdered innocent men and women and took a hostage. We were authorized to end you! And the _only_ reason you are still alive is because Captain Pike is allowing it. So shut. Your. Mouth.”

Harrison was completely unfazed. “Oh Commander, are you going to punch me, over and over until your arm weakens?” Leonard mentally snorted. That explained Jim’s busted knuckles, then. But Harrison was continuing, still in that calm, creepy voice, “Clearly you want to, so tell me, Commander, why don’t you? And why did your captain allow me to live?”

“We all make mistakes,” Jim shot back.

Harrison shook his head. “No, I surrendered to you and your captain because, despite your attempts to convince me otherwise, you seem to have a conscience. If you did not, then it would be impossible for me to convince you of the truth.” 

Harrison’s next words were spoken clearly, separately, like pebbles dropped into a pond. “Two three, one seven, four six, one one. Coordinates not far from earth. If you want to know why I did what I did, go and take a look.”

“Give me one reason why we should listen to you,” Jim said tightly.

“I can give you seventy-two. And they’re on board this ship, Commander. They have been, all along. I suggest you open one up.”

Leonard was already forming the words to convince Jim that this was a terrible idea, but Jim forestalled him. “Bones, report to medical.” 

McCoy shook his head but turned to do as he was told. The sooner he got those blood samples going, the sooner he could get to the bridge to talk some sense into Jim and Chris, goddamn noble, reckless fools that they were.


End file.
